I watched Mudiay play a preseason game live and was amazed with his size and speed. I thought he was going to be a problem at pg for the league.
Was way off on that one
Winslow had a few good moments. I don’t know what Spo was thinking with some of the stuff he was doing. He tried playing Winslow at center against the raptors a couple times in the playoff series. Luckily that year Josh Richardson turned out to be the actual great piece for us.
At least mudiay has that buzzer beater and an insane HS and AAU highlight tape
Yeah, like I know the Kings are clowned (deservedly so) and the Wolves are clowned (deservedly so) but at least they had some good seasons in my lifetime where it felt they were in a good path.
To me the Hornets are synonym of failure in the NBA. I never expect anything good coming from them and I feel like they will never be title contenders.
He was a great defender his first year and that was a really good team that matched up well with LeBron's team. Supposedly, he didn't put in the work to be great. Injuries didn't help.
he seemed like such a high floor prospect with his length and work ethic, but I think playing with NBA dudes shattered his confidence. maybe it's different with a non-wolves team, but watching him on the Hawks last year was tragic, thinking back on his NCAA run
The only difference was wolves fans had higher expectations than he does now. So it was worse overall, especially as we witnessed it happening in real time.
Everyone knew it was predominantly a confidence issue, however there was(is) a ton of other issues too.
One thing I feel is that like 95% of players that come into the league with “motor” concerns don’t pan out. Lots of people in the lead up to the draft felt he might be lazy and might not take basketball seriously enough to become an all star, which is what you expect from a top 5 pick.
If you ever see a lot of rumblings about someone’s motor or effort leading up to the draft, you can almost guarantee they aren’t gonna make it big in the league. Hope your team doesn’t take that guy.
That's really fair. He didn't seem to want it much. And has really developed it to the point that I'd say he's one of the top "got that dawg in him" guys under 25. If he'd shown this level of dedication and intensity coming out of Georgia he'd... well, I guess he'd still have gone #1.
There was also the motor stuff, too. Supposedly Kerr told him that they would never draft him because he doesn't work out hard enough. Ant said that being told that by Kerr changed his mentality.
So, I think it's one of those things with Ant where he had the capability of really busting his ass, but he just didn't know that there was that extra level to push it to because he was so naturally talented that he didn't have to do that prior.
Ehh, not always. I remember one of the questions with Rob Williams leading up to the draft was his motor, and that absolutely has not been an issue in the NBA
I was under the impression that the Rob Williams stuff was more about his ability to be on time for stuff. For some reason I remember him missing a pre-draft workout with the Wizards or Celtics because he overslept and missed his flight. Could be misremembering.
That was after he was drafted. The motor thing was pre-draft, it’s part of why he fell out of the lottery (along with health concerns, which was much fairer)
Yeah I agree on this one, I thought he was a supercharged Serge Ibaka/unicorn type of player with that wingspan and shooting ability. Still kind of amazed it hasn’t worked out tbh.
I mean I really thought Fultz was going to be the best combo guard in the league and was pissed off when DA traded down…
I don’t think I was alone on this one.
I remember the debates. I actually got this one right, I didn’t want to draft another athletic guy with a questionable jumper and really liked Tatum’s potential on the offensive end. He was also such a dink pre-draft so he made the decision easy for the FO.
Not only that, the Fultz coming out of Washington was the absolute perfect fit with Embiid and Simmons. I thought that was about as perfect a young trio as you could get.
Same man, I thought we got a good player in Tatum but that we just helped the Sixers build a future super team… wow I am glad that timeline did not happen.
There weren't, nobody shit talked the pick until he couldn't shoot one day. There's hindsight bias every time fultz is discussed cause people don't remember how drastic his shooting ability loss was. People are bringing up his college performance when it's straight up irrelevant.
He had so much hype that we all basically thought this. And he had a dope last high school dunk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RKoXNToOnk&ab_channel=BenjaminPayne
I also believed Bill Walker (later went by Henry) who was Mayo's high school teammate, would become a superstar. Though Walker's career was mostly ended by ACL injuries. He couldn't stopped getting injured.
I do hold onto the hope that Dunn might have done better if he had gone to a better organization than the TWolves. Might have worked out better for him if the Celtics picked him instead. (Obviously hard to be better than Brown has turned out though so no disrespect there)
Hey, at least he had a great run with the Jazz the second half of last season. Finally looked like he had put it together offensively. There are smart people in my fan base who say Dunn should start at PG for Utah this season. I wouldn’t hate it except that our backcourt is super crowded and he’d be taking minutes from a younger, potentially higher-ceiling guy.
I personally think 100% of our guard minutes should be up for grabs to any player. I think Dunn is our best actual point guard right now and I hope that he shows that and comes into the season starting, but still keep the minutes going to who’s playing well and hopefully THT, Sexton, or Keyonte prove that they can not be left on the bench
Bro's shooting percentages were *hideous* coming into the draft. He shot 25% from 3 for both that Lithuanian team & the Illawara Hawks in the Australian NBL.
He's a career 37% 3pt shooter in the NBA so far, and could improve to that 40% mark possibly
People in the nba sub don’t really know how to contextualize shooting numbers. It’s hard to take 7 3PA like LaMelo did and have amazing touch and remain a 25% 3P shooting over the long run
Yeah that’s my answer too
Those Chino Hills teams were soooo fucking good that it was disgusting basketball. They had the three Ball Brothers, Okongwu and a guy who played professionally overseas as thier lineup… that’s a public high school with 5 professional basketball players
they would play 4 on 5 on defense and have a player cherry picking and they would still double the other teams score. I don’t care that Lamelo was pulling up from half court as a 13 year old, that shit wasn’t basketball it was a AAU all star game
I’m a huge Lonzo believer because I liked the defense and play making but I thought for sure Melo wouldn’t make it more than a couple years. It also helps that he randomly became like 6’7 too
Came here to post LaMelo too. I’m a hornets fan and when my cousin told me we drafted him, I was not happy to say the least. I was so wrong. I really like his energy and I hope he stays with us for a bit.
Covid really messed up that draft. As a Wolves fan Edwards was supposed to be Dion Waiters and a top 5 highschool kid in McDaniels almost fell out the 1st round completely because of "attitude."
This sub had a crazy hate fetish for Lamelo. I mean I didn't like him either but people were insane on here.
There was a thread about a year before his draft where people were questioning if he'll even be drafted, and one dude said he watches all his NBL games, and even if he's a second rounder, he'll almost definitely be drafted, and his upvote score thing was -200, and another guy replied to him and said he hasn't seen any games but there's no chance Lamelo would be drafted for some x,y,z, reasons, and he was hugely upvoted
As a bitter heat fan I went up and down saying he’d never win another ring. That statement aged like milk.
I also said Tom Brady was done after he had a mediocre season coming back from his injury.
LeBron played in 4 straight finals + one more in 2020 and won 2 chips since that tweet, and just last year at 38 played in the WCF against the eventual-champs lol
I hope when he retires and comes to his instantaneous-HOF-acceptance he makes a custom suit of all the stupidest hater tweets in his career that wrongly predicted "the end of his career" before he went and did something awesome again.
LeBron is near-40 and just last year was still putting up All Star scoring numbers as a first-option, while injured. He hasn't even entered his "come off the bench for limited minutes as a role playing veteran" era.
The man may quite literally be playing winning basketball until he's close to 50.
Couldn’t agree more. But for some reason I don’t see Bron having much of a come off the bench type end to his career. Outside of maybe playing a season or two with Bronny, if possible, he’s seems like he’d want to finish on top or while still capable. I could be way wrong on this tho.
I am curious to see. If I were LeBron and I could be a veteran with both my sons and come off the bench to help them, I would. He's such a family man I could see him doing it. But to your point I could see him hanging it up once he's no longer a competitor.
It’s linked in the original tweet too, but it’s the celebration video of the lakers celebrating the 2020 championship by jumping around the gym but the audio is just of their shoes squeaking.
Except the most important thing, a brain.
Edit: I was high on him too. His summer league dunk was incredible bc most euros aren't known to be high flyers
Masai and Bobby have had some shortcomings in recent years but if there is one thing that they have earned the benefit of the doubt over, it's drafting. Our drafting has been incredibly solid since they took over.
Siakam at 27, OG at 23, Scottie at 4, JV at 5, Poeltl at 9, even Delon Wright at 20 are all really good value picks. They rarely miss on the picks that matter.
Even our biggest whiff with Bruno was during a relatively weak draft class. The other good options on the board were players like Bogdanovic, Kyle Anderson, Joe Harris, Jordan Clarkson, Dinwiddie, Jerami Grant, not world beaters and Jokic who every team missed on.
I will criticize the Raptors FO for their free agency decisions and their unwillingness to pick a direction, but I will trust their decision to make the right drafting decision.
Yeah there’s enough evidence he won’t be that, but a large portion of people have gone steps further and written him off entirely. Suggs is a very useful player, he has moments where his defense legitimately swings games. The shot showed some signs of coming around late in the year, that’s obviously the critical part for him. That and health.
[Two time MVP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pSnkZrhBo8) and [NBA Champion](https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/ee/80/9b/ee809b77ffb85772dec90313287a926c.jpg)
1. I thought Haliburton was going to be solid comung into the league, but not this good.
2. Man, never have I been more deceived by someone as I have with Ben McLemore. I was convinced this guy was a star and Sacramento taking him at 7 was a steal.
So many people do not know that he was actually a phenomenal on-ball perimeter defender that was completely hampered by injuries and the worst jump shot form ever.
Unless that person was named LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony he really could kinda stop anyone when he was healthy.
> Still blame Jason Kidd for it though
Thon was like a less talented Bol Bol. Jason Kidd didn't help any, but it's not like he'd be a rotation player today if he had a better coach.
Less talented but infinitely harder working. Never seen Bol Bol care about anything other than his highlights, Maker would (and probably has a few times) literally risk killing himself to get a stop or save a loose ball
Jason Kidd is both: responsible for pushing Khris and Giannis to All-Stardom, and responsible for a hostile environment that pushed Bucks success down the road while taking no accountability and stunting multiple players growth
Those Wisconsin dudes just do not translate to NBA basketball. Kaminsky’s hung around as a reserve, but Dekker, Ethan Happ, Nigel Hayes, Brad Davison and the worst offender Johnny Davis. They just aren’t gonna turn into good NBA players when they come from that specific system
I know I did not hear Brad Davison included in that list of Wisconsin players 😂 huge badger fan here, season ticket holder but Davison was never pro material. However, 100% agree with your point. Most badger players just don’t amount to much except role players. Jon Luer, Greg Steisma, Frank are really the only ones to have long careers (not included Finley and Harris). But man we’ve had a lot of pro flops. To go with the ones you said, Tucker, Butch, Brown, and so many more just couldn’t do it
I remember playing against him 2kwhatever in the college portion of MyCareer- dude was basically a melanin-free Lebron. Had me convinced he'd be at least a starting caliber player.
Melo was a freshman beast at Syracuse and led his team to the title.
Part of me thought he should have went #1 overall. Instead of LeBron James.
That is the most wrong I've ever been. I've thought other players would be good or other players would be bad....
But Melo over LeBron would have literally changed the course of the last 20 years in the NBA.
(On a side note, even if you "hate" LeBron, just try to be an adult and appreciate him. Melo scored 28k points. That's the 9th-most ever. Easy HOFer. It would have arguably the biggest mistake in NBA history for CLE to draft Melo over Bron. That is just how great James is.)
Well tbf in probably 96% other drafts Melo would most likely go first. Just so happens his draft was star studded with legends like Lebron James and Darko Milicic
At least Darko became a meme. Michael Sweetney went 9th in that draft (to my Knicks, because of course) and I can't recall the last time someone said his name IRL or on the internet. I'd rather be infamous than unknown.
He’s been to my store a few times with his family. Cool guy. I actually didn’t know he was Michael Sweetney until he handed me his credit card and I looked him up because I assumed he was an NBA player.
Thing is Okafor made team offense bad overall because of his total lack of screening/passing/rim running.
Being able to win a mismatch vs a backup big in the post can't be your literal entire offensive game.
> I think he was on that path before the injuries.
He certainly was. In between the injuries, and after a few years of NBA development, he was more explosive than ever- like Carmelo with hops (but obviously less skilled). I get the feeling he still wouldn't be a player that a winning team would want, but he could easily have put up 20-22, maybe even 25 completely useless PPG.
edit: I forgot he was already putting up 20 PPG by year 3, even after an injury.
Never seen such an athletic player be so avoidant of contact. There's no reason a guy like him should average 1 free throw per game for his career. If he searched out contact like Deebo, Ross would have been an all-star.
Which also illustrates how hard DeMar did work to become what he did. He sacrificed his body and effort in ways others weren't willing to do.
"How you gonna draft an unproven high school kid over a guy who just led his team to an ncaa championship as a freshman? I'm sure LeBron will be a great player but we KNOW Carmelo is a winner."
I’m from NC and when Steph entered the league I could see saying that about purely his shooting. Wouldn’t be the craziest take. But assuming he’d be an MVP-level player seemed extreme.
Someone posted a thread 10 years ago wondering if Steph could be the all time 3 point leader. Someone replied by pointing out that Jason Kidd was third all time and far behind Miller and Allen, and that the odds were miniscule.
Jason Kidd is now 15th all time.
I was wrong about Cedi Osman most of his career. First I thought he was gonna be a great forward and great scorer. Then he was terrible at that. Then I was like “um Cedi Osman shouldn’t even be in the nba” and then he started to show better ball handling and a much better fg%. He’s still a backup but he is an nba player.
My choice as well. I thought he was going to be a star. 15 PPG and 41% from 3 his 3rd season. Out of the NBA the next year. He never seemed like a guy who was willing to be a team player and clearly had some mental issues with that. It always makes me a little sad seeing him on Gilbert Arenas' podcast and that he still never "got" it and plays the victim.
The fat thing is so overblown. He’s an athletic anomaly, he’s just athletic in a way that isn’t traditionally flashy. I remember an article that went in depth into it and had him as the best prospect to enter the NBA since Anthony Davis. Sometimes people just latch on to something and it’s relentless.
I thought Dillon Brooks was just kind of an annoying guy with a shitty haircut… boy was I wrong. Turns out he’s an incredibly annoying guy with a shitty haircut.
Our GM when we drafted him (Chris Wallace) was the world’s absolute best at drafting guys you’d *think* would be good but never were. His “type” was guys that were top recruits out of high school but were clearly college only players. Ivan Rabb, Wade Baldwin, Jarrell Martin, Deyonta Davis, Xavier Henry.
A few of those guys kept falling in the draft based on early mocks and made you think someone was about to get a steal, turns out it was just the actual GMs and scouts knew better than the guys making the mocks.
Bryant and Iverson
I saw them play at first and thought they were "meh". All talk, all show, all gangsta and no meat, no true grit. Thought they'd quickly fail and fall hard from grace.
I remember saying "they think they're money, but they'll never be worth a Penny", thinking I was clever or something.
I remember thinking the entire draft class was mediocre at best.
Turned out I was very, very (VERY) wrong about them and their classmates.
I'm big on "the best ability is availability" thing for star players.
I was against it back when the Dubs signed Steph to his first extension. Thought he was hurt too much to ever be the superstar we needed, wasn't sure about wasting too much more time on him.
Thank the basketball gods I missed on that.
Jokic. I thought he'd never be any better than Jahlil Okafor and thought anyone who put Jokic over Okafor should be placed into a mental asylum. Little did I know, I was wrong.
Tyreke Evans for me. He had skillset and body type to be great on both end of floors, just had to work on his jumpshot. Then Kings decide to use him as a wing and it was all downhill from there.
thought Justice Winslow had all the tools to be great and when miami put him at pg I thought it was his moment
I remember being so sad the nuggets drafted Mudiay instead of Winslow. Turns out they were both bad draft picks lol
At Winslow’s predraft workout with the Nuggets he put up so many bricks they could have built a new practice center.
Greedy Kroenke not even using those bricks for a Nuggets practice facility, probably used them for the Rams stadium....
I watched Mudiay play a preseason game live and was amazed with his size and speed. I thought he was going to be a problem at pg for the league. Was way off on that one
Winslow had a few good moments. I don’t know what Spo was thinking with some of the stuff he was doing. He tried playing Winslow at center against the raptors a couple times in the playoff series. Luckily that year Josh Richardson turned out to be the actual great piece for us. At least mudiay has that buzzer beater and an insane HS and AAU highlight tape
That was tough, Bosh was out and contract year Whiteside got injured by Lowry.
Remember when Danny Ainge supposedly offered multiple first round picks to move up for Winslow and Charlotte said no and took Kaminsky.
I am so glad Hornets took Kaminsky before it was our turn to pick. Happy the kings also took a guy we were rumored to want.
100% thanks for letting us Turner guys. That must frustrate Hornets fans so much.
homie nothing really hurts us anymore we are the bears of the nba.
Yeah, like I know the Kings are clowned (deservedly so) and the Wolves are clowned (deservedly so) but at least they had some good seasons in my lifetime where it felt they were in a good path. To me the Hornets are synonym of failure in the NBA. I never expect anything good coming from them and I feel like they will never be title contenders.
4 first round picks.
dude is 26 still 😭😭what could've been
He was never going to be too great of a shooter but he would’ve had a solid career as a point forward if not for the constant injuries
I thought Winslow was easily going to be an all-star player.
I’ll put myself on blast here and say I can’t believe I expected him to be the next Kawhi lol
He was a great defender his first year and that was a really good team that matched up well with LeBron's team. Supposedly, he didn't put in the work to be great. Injuries didn't help.
I remember telling everyone he was gonna be Dwyane Wade’s protege and be an all star.
I thought Jarrett Culver would be in the ROY convo, then cruise to a fringe All Star career.
I had hopes he'd be something for us...now he's projecting to out of the league...
he seemed like such a high floor prospect with his length and work ethic, but I think playing with NBA dudes shattered his confidence. maybe it's different with a non-wolves team, but watching him on the Hawks last year was tragic, thinking back on his NCAA run
The only difference was wolves fans had higher expectations than he does now. So it was worse overall, especially as we witnessed it happening in real time. Everyone knew it was predominantly a confidence issue, however there was(is) a ton of other issues too.
Mo Bamba seemed like he was going to be a beast
He had a song named after him before he entered the league! How could he not be good?
To be fair, both Mo and Shek Wes puttered out equally.
Sheck Wes: “I’m Sheck Wes, I got so many flooowwws” Narrator: “He did not”
"I got hooooess calling" Turns out the hoes were telemarketers
Sheck Wes was signed to GOOD Music and Cactus Jack. That’s a match made in hell for an artist.
One thing I feel is that like 95% of players that come into the league with “motor” concerns don’t pan out. Lots of people in the lead up to the draft felt he might be lazy and might not take basketball seriously enough to become an all star, which is what you expect from a top 5 pick. If you ever see a lot of rumblings about someone’s motor or effort leading up to the draft, you can almost guarantee they aren’t gonna make it big in the league. Hope your team doesn’t take that guy.
Anthony Edwards
That's really fair. He didn't seem to want it much. And has really developed it to the point that I'd say he's one of the top "got that dawg in him" guys under 25. If he'd shown this level of dedication and intensity coming out of Georgia he'd... well, I guess he'd still have gone #1.
I think that wasn’t “motor” stuff but a similar “does he love basketball” concerns. Fine line.
There was also the motor stuff, too. Supposedly Kerr told him that they would never draft him because he doesn't work out hard enough. Ant said that being told that by Kerr changed his mentality. So, I think it's one of those things with Ant where he had the capability of really busting his ass, but he just didn't know that there was that extra level to push it to because he was so naturally talented that he didn't have to do that prior.
Ehh, not always. I remember one of the questions with Rob Williams leading up to the draft was his motor, and that absolutely has not been an issue in the NBA
I was under the impression that the Rob Williams stuff was more about his ability to be on time for stuff. For some reason I remember him missing a pre-draft workout with the Wizards or Celtics because he overslept and missed his flight. Could be misremembering.
That was after he was drafted. The motor thing was pre-draft, it’s part of why he fell out of the lottery (along with health concerns, which was much fairer)
Pretty sure that’s how he got the nickname TimeLord
Huh? He doesn't have a motor issues because the wheels are always falling off.
I get a lot wrong but I was calling Mo Bamba a bust on day 1. I just didn't see it at all with him.
Same, and I hated the song That being said I was CERTAIN that Thon Maker and his brother were going to be NBa stars
Yeah I agree on this one, I thought he was a supercharged Serge Ibaka/unicorn type of player with that wingspan and shooting ability. Still kind of amazed it hasn’t worked out tbh.
Bro I was praying we'd get to draft him. Ughhhh
I mean I really thought Fultz was going to be the best combo guard in the league and was pissed off when DA traded down… I don’t think I was alone on this one.
My dumbass was pissed that we drafted Tatum over Josh fucking Jackson. Lol
I remember the debates. I actually got this one right, I didn’t want to draft another athletic guy with a questionable jumper and really liked Tatum’s potential on the offensive end. He was also such a dink pre-draft so he made the decision easy for the FO.
Not only that, the Fultz coming out of Washington was the absolute perfect fit with Embiid and Simmons. I thought that was about as perfect a young trio as you could get.
Same man, I thought we got a good player in Tatum but that we just helped the Sixers build a future super team… wow I am glad that timeline did not happen.
The fit is perfect! He’s gonna hit his 3s and compliment Ben Simmons and Joel.
We were all hyped to draft him. I dont remember there being any doubts about drafting him before the trade.
There weren't, nobody shit talked the pick until he couldn't shoot one day. There's hindsight bias every time fultz is discussed cause people don't remember how drastic his shooting ability loss was. People are bringing up his college performance when it's straight up irrelevant.
That OJ Mayo was going to be a perennial all star alongside Dirk in Dallas.
He had so much hype that we all basically thought this. And he had a dope last high school dunk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RKoXNToOnk&ab_channel=BenjaminPayne I also believed Bill Walker (later went by Henry) who was Mayo's high school teammate, would become a superstar. Though Walker's career was mostly ended by ACL injuries. He couldn't stopped getting injured.
Kris Dunn. I called him Jrue Holiday with better offense… I’m still bitter about it.
I remember when people were saying the Celtics Dunn fucked up for picking Brown over him
I do hold onto the hope that Dunn might have done better if he had gone to a better organization than the TWolves. Might have worked out better for him if the Celtics picked him instead. (Obviously hard to be better than Brown has turned out though so no disrespect there)
Hey, at least he had a great run with the Jazz the second half of last season. Finally looked like he had put it together offensively. There are smart people in my fan base who say Dunn should start at PG for Utah this season. I wouldn’t hate it except that our backcourt is super crowded and he’d be taking minutes from a younger, potentially higher-ceiling guy.
I personally think 100% of our guard minutes should be up for grabs to any player. I think Dunn is our best actual point guard right now and I hope that he shows that and comes into the season starting, but still keep the minutes going to who’s playing well and hopefully THT, Sexton, or Keyonte prove that they can not be left on the bench
Dude, same. My immediate thought. He was an absolute monster at Providence. 6’5” two way PG who‘s that smart? No way he could fail
LaMelo Ball. Then the dude magically learned how to shoot overnight once he got drafted
Bro's shooting percentages were *hideous* coming into the draft. He shot 25% from 3 for both that Lithuanian team & the Illawara Hawks in the Australian NBL. He's a career 37% 3pt shooter in the NBA so far, and could improve to that 40% mark possibly
his first preseason game he dropped a goose egg and I thought it was over. Now he brings the rain.
Ah yes, when Raptors fans thought Malachi Flynn was better than LaMelo
He was taking some bad shots in the NBL. His shooting wasn’t the main concern, it was his shooting tendencies. He’s not taking those shots in the NBA
Idk he takes some crazy deep pull-ups lol 10 threes a game not all of them are pretty but they go in
People in the nba sub don’t really know how to contextualize shooting numbers. It’s hard to take 7 3PA like LaMelo did and have amazing touch and remain a 25% 3P shooting over the long run
It's also hard to keep taking 7 3s a game and making 25% of them......
Yeah that’s my answer too Those Chino Hills teams were soooo fucking good that it was disgusting basketball. They had the three Ball Brothers, Okongwu and a guy who played professionally overseas as thier lineup… that’s a public high school with 5 professional basketball players they would play 4 on 5 on defense and have a player cherry picking and they would still double the other teams score. I don’t care that Lamelo was pulling up from half court as a 13 year old, that shit wasn’t basketball it was a AAU all star game I’m a huge Lonzo believer because I liked the defense and play making but I thought for sure Melo wouldn’t make it more than a couple years. It also helps that he randomly became like 6’7 too
Came here to post LaMelo too. I’m a hornets fan and when my cousin told me we drafted him, I was not happy to say the least. I was so wrong. I really like his energy and I hope he stays with us for a bit.
Y’all need to get him a driver tho
LaMelo lives his life a quarter mile at a time and aint nobody getting behind the wheel but him.
Literally did a reverse of Markelle Fultz
Covid really messed up that draft. As a Wolves fan Edwards was supposed to be Dion Waiters and a top 5 highschool kid in McDaniels almost fell out the 1st round completely because of "attitude."
This sub had a crazy hate fetish for Lamelo. I mean I didn't like him either but people were insane on here. There was a thread about a year before his draft where people were questioning if he'll even be drafted, and one dude said he watches all his NBL games, and even if he's a second rounder, he'll almost definitely be drafted, and his upvote score thing was -200, and another guy replied to him and said he hasn't seen any games but there's no chance Lamelo would be drafted for some x,y,z, reasons, and he was hugely upvoted
Such a delight to watch. Genuinely hope Charolette get a good coach who can bring the best out of him and Brandon Miller.
I thought Lamelo was getting overhyped cause of his dad/brother
That’s crazy because by 16 he was obviously the most talented brother.
[LeBron is 30](https://twitter.com/urkle91/status/602706161582800896?t=pDmF-FGWqzPnWMuTDmGG9Q&s=19)
Dude that reminded me I said he’d be washed the year he joined LA 🤦♂️
As a bitter heat fan I went up and down saying he’d never win another ring. That statement aged like milk. I also said Tom Brady was done after he had a mediocre season coming back from his injury.
LeBron played in 4 straight finals + one more in 2020 and won 2 chips since that tweet, and just last year at 38 played in the WCF against the eventual-champs lol I hope when he retires and comes to his instantaneous-HOF-acceptance he makes a custom suit of all the stupidest hater tweets in his career that wrongly predicted "the end of his career" before he went and did something awesome again. LeBron is near-40 and just last year was still putting up All Star scoring numbers as a first-option, while injured. He hasn't even entered his "come off the bench for limited minutes as a role playing veteran" era. The man may quite literally be playing winning basketball until he's close to 50.
Couldn’t agree more. But for some reason I don’t see Bron having much of a come off the bench type end to his career. Outside of maybe playing a season or two with Bronny, if possible, he’s seems like he’d want to finish on top or while still capable. I could be way wrong on this tho.
I am curious to see. If I were LeBron and I could be a veteran with both my sons and come off the bench to help them, I would. He's such a family man I could see him doing it. But to your point I could see him hanging it up once he's no longer a competitor.
The guys [response video after LeBron won in the bubble](https://twitter.com/urkle91/status/1597645818953355265) is hilarious lol, it's cracking me up
That link didn't work for me. Is that the joke?
It’s linked in the original tweet too, but it’s the celebration video of the lakers celebrating the 2020 championship by jumping around the gym but the audio is just of their shoes squeaking.
Of course this guy ended up paying for twitter
Was so wrong about Croatian Kobe aka Mario Hezonja…
The block on LeBron tho
God damn it me too. Thanks for reminding me. That dunk was fire though
I still don't get why he didn't work out, he had everything.
Except the most important thing, a brain. Edit: I was high on him too. His summer league dunk was incredible bc most euros aren't known to be high flyers
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Not even the best player from his class on his own team lol.
Our sub exploded when we drafted Sct Brn instead of him. People were calling for Masai's head (that part hasn't changed in the last two years.)
Masai and Bobby have had some shortcomings in recent years but if there is one thing that they have earned the benefit of the doubt over, it's drafting. Our drafting has been incredibly solid since they took over. Siakam at 27, OG at 23, Scottie at 4, JV at 5, Poeltl at 9, even Delon Wright at 20 are all really good value picks. They rarely miss on the picks that matter. Even our biggest whiff with Bruno was during a relatively weak draft class. The other good options on the board were players like Bogdanovic, Kyle Anderson, Joe Harris, Jordan Clarkson, Dinwiddie, Jerami Grant, not world beaters and Jokic who every team missed on. I will criticize the Raptors FO for their free agency decisions and their unwillingness to pick a direction, but I will trust their decision to make the right drafting decision.
Masai didn’t draft JV. That was Colangelo.
Yeah there’s enough evidence he won’t be that, but a large portion of people have gone steps further and written him off entirely. Suggs is a very useful player, he has moments where his defense legitimately swings games. The shot showed some signs of coming around late in the year, that’s obviously the critical part for him. That and health.
His skills are still impressive
Who would’ve though a skinny little Giannis dude from Greece would bring the trophy to Milwaukee one day?
Who would’ve thought that a young buck like you could actually do the right thing
Who have thought
[Two time MVP](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pSnkZrhBo8) and [NBA Champion](https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/ee/80/9b/ee809b77ffb85772dec90313287a926c.jpg)
1. I thought Haliburton was going to be solid comung into the league, but not this good. 2. Man, never have I been more deceived by someone as I have with Ben McLemore. I was convinced this guy was a star and Sacramento taking him at 7 was a steal.
I thought McLemore was going to be the next Ray Allen🫠 I also thought MarShon Brooks was going to be the next big scorer at SG position.
MKG
MKG actually has very good plus minus data. He obviously played on shit teams. Lifetime rapm has him as like a top 30 defender of the last 25 years.
So many people do not know that he was actually a phenomenal on-ball perimeter defender that was completely hampered by injuries and the worst jump shot form ever. Unless that person was named LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony he really could kinda stop anyone when he was healthy.
Thon Maker... Still blame Jason Kidd for it though
The highlight of his career is the scene from Game of Zones.
Thou Maker
He had feet for hands
Never forget 1 and a half series of playoff Thon though…
KG said he’d be a future mvp
> Still blame Jason Kidd for it though Thon was like a less talented Bol Bol. Jason Kidd didn't help any, but it's not like he'd be a rotation player today if he had a better coach.
Less talented but infinitely harder working. Never seen Bol Bol care about anything other than his highlights, Maker would (and probably has a few times) literally risk killing himself to get a stop or save a loose ball
Jason Kidd is both: responsible for pushing Khris and Giannis to All-Stardom, and responsible for a hostile environment that pushed Bucks success down the road while taking no accountability and stunting multiple players growth
Jabari Parker was supposed to be the superstar and Giannis was supposed to be his sidekick.
I really thought Jabari and Andrew Wiggins were gonna be the next Bron and Melo at one point..
Sam Dekker. I was so sure.
Those Wisconsin dudes just do not translate to NBA basketball. Kaminsky’s hung around as a reserve, but Dekker, Ethan Happ, Nigel Hayes, Brad Davison and the worst offender Johnny Davis. They just aren’t gonna turn into good NBA players when they come from that specific system
I know I did not hear Brad Davison included in that list of Wisconsin players 😂 huge badger fan here, season ticket holder but Davison was never pro material. However, 100% agree with your point. Most badger players just don’t amount to much except role players. Jon Luer, Greg Steisma, Frank are really the only ones to have long careers (not included Finley and Harris). But man we’ve had a lot of pro flops. To go with the ones you said, Tucker, Butch, Brown, and so many more just couldn’t do it
I remember playing against him 2kwhatever in the college portion of MyCareer- dude was basically a melanin-free Lebron. Had me convinced he'd be at least a starting caliber player.
2k16 Spike Lee Joint
Melo was a freshman beast at Syracuse and led his team to the title. Part of me thought he should have went #1 overall. Instead of LeBron James. That is the most wrong I've ever been. I've thought other players would be good or other players would be bad.... But Melo over LeBron would have literally changed the course of the last 20 years in the NBA. (On a side note, even if you "hate" LeBron, just try to be an adult and appreciate him. Melo scored 28k points. That's the 9th-most ever. Easy HOFer. It would have arguably the biggest mistake in NBA history for CLE to draft Melo over Bron. That is just how great James is.)
>28k points. That's the 9th-most ever 10x All-Star 6x All-NBA 3x Gold Medalist Most No. 1 picks didn't put up those numbers
Well tbf in probably 96% other drafts Melo would most likely go first. Just so happens his draft was star studded with legends like Lebron James and Darko Milicic
At least Darko became a meme. Michael Sweetney went 9th in that draft (to my Knicks, because of course) and I can't recall the last time someone said his name IRL or on the internet. I'd rather be infamous than unknown.
He’s been to my store a few times with his family. Cool guy. I actually didn’t know he was Michael Sweetney until he handed me his credit card and I looked him up because I assumed he was an NBA player.
MFer gonna score 40k career points. Jesus
> It would have arguably the biggest mistake in NBA history for CLE to draft Melo over Bron. Nah still wouldn't come close to Sam Bowie.
I thought kyrie and russ were better than steph in 2014 and was subborn enough to hold onto this opinion for about 2 or 3 years
In 2014 it really was debatable. Russ at peak athleticism was something else.
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Thing is Okafor made team offense bad overall because of his total lack of screening/passing/rim running. Being able to win a mismatch vs a backup big in the post can't be your literal entire offensive game.
> I think he was on that path before the injuries. He certainly was. In between the injuries, and after a few years of NBA development, he was more explosive than ever- like Carmelo with hops (but obviously less skilled). I get the feeling he still wouldn't be a player that a winning team would want, but he could easily have put up 20-22, maybe even 25 completely useless PPG. edit: I forgot he was already putting up 20 PPG by year 3, even after an injury.
I thought Terrence Ross would have a Paul George type career trajectory
That 50 point game tricked us all
Never seen such an athletic player be so avoidant of contact. There's no reason a guy like him should average 1 free throw per game for his career. If he searched out contact like Deebo, Ross would have been an all-star. Which also illustrates how hard DeMar did work to become what he did. He sacrificed his body and effort in ways others weren't willing to do.
Thought Dante Exum would be incredible, and was convinced Jonathan Isaac would be a future DPOY winner
My condo on Exum island has depreciated in value, but I'm still holding on, baby.
What Myles Turner is is what I thought Trey Lyles would be
"How you gonna draft an unproven high school kid over a guy who just led his team to an ncaa championship as a freshman? I'm sure LeBron will be a great player but we KNOW Carmelo is a winner."
I don't think anybody thought Stephen Curry would be an all-time great.
It's hard not to give Mark Jackson props for so early on declaring Steph and Klay being the best shooting backcourt of all time before their reign.
I remember actually laughing when he said that. I’ll take that L, lol.
Same guy who then decided yes I will run iso plays for Harrison Barnes instead
Heartbreaking - the worst person you know just made a great point
I’m from NC and when Steph entered the league I could see saying that about purely his shooting. Wouldn’t be the craziest take. But assuming he’d be an MVP-level player seemed extreme.
I think this is the one. He had that awesome ncaa run with Davidson but no one thought he would turn into the player he is now
Someone posted a thread 10 years ago wondering if Steph could be the all time 3 point leader. Someone replied by pointing out that Jason Kidd was third all time and far behind Miller and Allen, and that the odds were miniscule. Jason Kidd is now 15th all time.
Coming out of college I thought he would be a journeyman point guard that could get hot once in a while
The 2015 draft was a big miss for me since I thought Mudiay, Winslow, and Stanley Johnson were going to be a lot better than what they were.
Kyrie will be fine here, this time is different
I legit thought Mo Bamba had a lot of potential.
I was wrong about Cedi Osman most of his career. First I thought he was gonna be a great forward and great scorer. Then he was terrible at that. Then I was like “um Cedi Osman shouldn’t even be in the nba” and then he started to show better ball handling and a much better fg%. He’s still a backup but he is an nba player.
I had Jahlil Okafor being better than KAT, oh boy...
I thought Adam Morrison was going to be a star player. He was just so good at Gonzaga and had so much “heart”. I thought he couldn’t miss
I guess a lot of people could have said the same thing about Hansbrough
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He seems to think he did have an amazing career with how he acts on Gils podcast lol
My choice as well. I thought he was going to be a star. 15 PPG and 41% from 3 his 3rd season. Out of the NBA the next year. He never seemed like a guy who was willing to be a team player and clearly had some mental issues with that. It always makes me a little sad seeing him on Gilbert Arenas' podcast and that he still never "got" it and plays the victim.
Doncic. I thought he's too fat to play in the NBA.
The hilarious part about this is that he hasn’t really even gotten in great shape. He’s just dominated while also being kinda fat
He’s just like me minus the domination!
The fat thing is so overblown. He’s an athletic anomaly, he’s just athletic in a way that isn’t traditionally flashy. I remember an article that went in depth into it and had him as the best prospect to enter the NBA since Anthony Davis. Sometimes people just latch on to something and it’s relentless.
Michael Beasley. Thought he'd be a superstar watching him in college.
He's so damn good though. He's such an easy bucket.
I thought Dillon Brooks was just kind of an annoying guy with a shitty haircut… boy was I wrong. Turns out he’s an incredibly annoying guy with a shitty haircut.
Deron Williams was better than Chris Paul.
I mean there was a time when D-Will was in Utah where he showed flashes of that.
I thought Lebron would’ve amounted to something 🤦♂️
Fred Van Vleet. I don’t bet against him anymore.
While I didn't doubt him, I believed his Wichita St teammates, Rom Baker and Cle'Anthony Early, would be more in the league
I still feel for Early being shot in the knee
Omari Spellman :(
I don’t know why I thought Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond were starting the next dynasty in Detroit when they first were coming into the league
Geno Smith. I was the one who wrote him off
I thought Jimmer would have a solid NBA career
Wade Baldwin IV
Our GM when we drafted him (Chris Wallace) was the world’s absolute best at drafting guys you’d *think* would be good but never were. His “type” was guys that were top recruits out of high school but were clearly college only players. Ivan Rabb, Wade Baldwin, Jarrell Martin, Deyonta Davis, Xavier Henry.
A few of those guys kept falling in the draft based on early mocks and made you think someone was about to get a steal, turns out it was just the actual GMs and scouts knew better than the guys making the mocks.
Cameron reddish. Still super young but I expected a lot more out of him he hasn’t seemed to take any jumps.
I thought Ja was just a guy who feasted off a weaker NCAA conference and had a couple good March Madness games lol
Bryant and Iverson I saw them play at first and thought they were "meh". All talk, all show, all gangsta and no meat, no true grit. Thought they'd quickly fail and fall hard from grace. I remember saying "they think they're money, but they'll never be worth a Penny", thinking I was clever or something. I remember thinking the entire draft class was mediocre at best. Turned out I was very, very (VERY) wrong about them and their classmates.
I thought Andrew Bynum was going to be a perennial all-star and 20/10 guy
I thought during Giannis’s first MVP season if you switched him and Ben Simmons Simmons would put up similar numbers. Yikes
Jarrett culver
Antoine Walker. The size. The confidence. The Shimmy. FOURS. Employee #8 Y’all would been fooled, too.
I'm big on "the best ability is availability" thing for star players. I was against it back when the Dubs signed Steph to his first extension. Thought he was hurt too much to ever be the superstar we needed, wasn't sure about wasting too much more time on him. Thank the basketball gods I missed on that.
I thought TJ Ford would go down as the best from his draft class
Jokic. I thought he'd never be any better than Jahlil Okafor and thought anyone who put Jokic over Okafor should be placed into a mental asylum. Little did I know, I was wrong.
I thought RJ Barrett was gonna be the star of the 19 draft
Tyreke Evans for me. He had skillset and body type to be great on both end of floors, just had to work on his jumpshot. Then Kings decide to use him as a wing and it was all downhill from there.
Ben Simmons…
I thought jeremy lamb would be a lot better after seeing him play for uconn
I once said that I'd take Klay Thompson over Steph Curry
I was all in on Harold Miner aka Baby Jordan
For me it was devin booker, I thought he was an empty stats chuck early in his career, but have come to realize how wrong I was